Elentinus made a sympathetic noise.
“I always thought that I could go back to my grandmother’s house after I graduated high school.
I was going to fix the place up and get the land working again.
Someone from the bank came to the group home with a box of some of my stuff from the house.
He let me know that my mom had used the property for collateral on a loan and they were confiscating it.
So, poof.
There went my dream of moving back home.”
“What a pity,” Elentinus said.
His voice knocked me out of the trance I’d gone into while I bared my soul.
I swished my food around my plate.
“So…um…”
“Could you have stayed at the group home indefinitely?”
I perked up.
“No.
They kick you out when you turn 18.
That was a major stressor for me, you know?
I didn’t have any family or any place to go.
I ended up enrolling in college just so I could live in the dorms.
Since I was a ward of the state my education would be fully paid for.
I figured it was the best solution for me.”
“What did you study?”
“Agricultural Science.
That’s farming, pretty much.
I still dreamed of living on a little farm the way I had when I was a kid.”
“How charming.”
I felt myself blushing again.
“It was probably not the best choice for me.
The economy tanked my sophomore year.
The odds of me getting a job right out of school were slim.
The government wasn’t going to pay for me to go for my masters, so I couldn’t stall.
I thought about joining the army but we had so many nasty conflicts going on in the Middle East.”
“Ah.”
Elentinus leaned back with interest.
“So women could serve in the military even in your era?”
I nodded with a touch of pride.
“I thought this ‘Peace’ Corps you were in might have been the military alternative for women.”
I tried not to be insulted.
“Um…are Dak-Hiliah women pretty…um…dainty?”
“I should say not.”
He smirked.
“But Earth women are.”
I raised my brow at him.
“Okay, anyway, as you know I ended up joining the Peace Corps.
That’s pretty much it.”
“Why did you move to a city when you returned?”
“Oh, some girl I served with got me all goo-goo eyed about Manhattan.
I’d gotten all this administrative experience in Botswana, so my job options were a little broader.
I guess I just latched on to the first idea that sounded good.
There wasn’t any reason for me to go back to Nebraska.”
“Maritza.”
Elentinus put his hand on mine.
My heart rate leapt up again.
“Who do you grieve for from your home?”
My brow furrowed.
“Who did you leave behind?
Who missed you when you were gone?”
I got the point, and didn’t like it.
“I might not have had many strong connections, but my life still had meaning.”
“You misunderstand me.”
He cupped his other hand under mine.
“You were in the perfect position to begin a new life somewhere else.
What have you really lost by coming here?”
“Huh.”
I accepted his logic.
“Of course your life had meaning, my dear.
Although you’d have found you couldn’t have children due to a problem we corrected—“
That explains my monster periods.
“You were an intelligent, resourceful, and vital woman.
You would have contributed a great deal to your society.”
This gave me a pang in my middle.
“But by no means could you have ever been as indispensable as you are here.
We need you far more desperately than where you came from.”
A Domestic came to take our plates away.
Another followed behind him to reveal two new ones.
They looked like my fish donut but smelled different.
I had to pause for another euphoric whiff.
Elentinus caressed my hand before moving his own away.
“I have many more treats for you to savor.”
I dug into the pastry with my crescent spoon thing.
“I get that.
And I understand why you guys need me so badly, too.”
Elentinus eyed me.
I paused to choose my words carefully.
“But, I’m, what did you call me? ‘An intelligent, resourceful, vital woman.’
I need some purpose in my life, and not just having 24 babies a year.”
“This is one of those circumstances I mentioned to you before.”
His voice had gotten sterner.
“You have to breed for us, even if you don’t wish it.
You have no choice.”
I looked at him with plaintive eyes.
Did he really think I was being defiant?
“I understand that, Lord Elentinus.
It…it’s fine.
I mean it’s…well, from what Hor-Denay described…I think it should be fine.
I’m not trying to get out of breeding.”
Elentinus looked at me.
“Aren’t you?”
“Of course not.”
He closed his eyes.
I saw an intense look of relief wash over him.
He put his face in his hand and sighed.
“Then you’ll be happy here.”
I blinked a few times.
“Wait, was that it?
That was the thing you were talking about me compromising on yesterday?”
“That’s your only mandatory obligation, Maritza.
If you’ve made your peace with that then I doubt any other aspect of your confinement should distress you that terribly.”
My shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath.
“Well that’s a relief.”
Elentinus cut into his pastry.
“You realize, of course, that breeding requires sexual intercourse.”
I set my utensil down.
“Yeah, I…I know how babies are made.”
“And you’ve made your peace with that, also?”
No.
Not really.
“Just…just with you, right?”
Elentinus made a wry laugh.
“If anyone else touches you, I’ll kill them.”
I kind of knew he meant that literally.
I also wondered if it was a good time to mention Whore had done my hair.
“Um…what I was trying to say before was that I need more to my life than just making babies for you.
I need…I need some occupation, you know?”
Elentinus tilted back his head in realization.
“Ah.
I see what you meant to say.
Of course, my dear.
We’ll put your skills to use.”
This made me smile.
“Really?”
“I’m certain Hor would value your assistance with his summaries.”
My chest deflated.
“Oh.”
Elentinus laughed.
He gave my shoulder a little squeeze.
“Don’t judge him too harshly.
He’s very protective of me.”
His hand moved to my hair.
I stayed frozen but felt little tingles up and down my spine.
He pulled out one of the combs.
A small pile of my hair tumbled free.
“Hor put it up for you, didn’t he?”
I nodded.
“He had me put on the make-up, too.”
“He knows what I fancy.”
Now my heart started racing out of panic.
He started pulling out all the combs in my hair one by one.
He was leaning in close and I could hear his breathing.
Was he putting the moves on me right now?
Didn’t I have eight more
degrees
?
When all my hair was loose he ran his fingers through it.
“You’re so lovely.
I would have chosen a brunette for my first wife, had they given me an option.”
He caressed my nape.
The tingles turned into pleasant shockwaves.
Despite this, if he wasn’t Lord Elentinus I would have pulled away.
That didn’t seem like an option.
I’d been fooling myself into thinking I had any advantage earlier.
Elentinus didn’t have to charm me.
I was his property.
His hand stopped moving.
“Does this distress you?”
I found my voice—I don’t know how.
“I’m not ready.”
“I don’t mean to take you to bed, my dear.
I only wished to touch your hair—your beautiful skin.”
My posture slackened a little.
“Oh.”
I closed my eyes.
“Then it’s fine.”
I heard Elentinus make his soft laugh.
“You’re so delightful.”
His hand went to the side of my face.
Now that I knew he wasn’t after sex I felt free to enjoy his caress.
“Maritza, be honest with me.”
I looked at him.
“Are you a virgin?”
I cringed.
“Don’t you think that’s important for me to know?”
I gave him my most forlorn look.
“Of course you can know.
I cringed because I’m embarrassed.
No, I’m not a virgin.”
“That embarrasses you?”
“I’ve only been with one guy, one time.
He conned me into bed.”
I groaned.
“I was so stupid.
He found out I was still a virgin and made a bet he could get me to sleep with him.
I thought we were in love with each other.
It was all a scam.”
Elentinus traced his finger around the sensitive rim of my ear. “It sounds as though he broke your heart.”
“It—it was just a rich kid taking advantage of a naïve bumpkin.”
“He was unworthy of you.”
“…Yeah.”
He turned my face toward his.
I got caught in his deep, dark gaze.
“I’m not.”